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 Hey Goons, long time poster first time beggar. I just thought I'd pop in and shamelessly shill for you all to come support [url=htons]my fiance and myself quitting our jobs and striking out into the great unknown that is Toronto's historic Kensington Market. [/ur We've secured space in the little food court at 214 Augusta ave in Kensington, right behind the churros, but we need to turn to Kickstarter to help us raise some much needed funds to close the gap between where we are and where we're going. We need some extra capital, largely to buy equipment, and Kickstarter kills both the funding bird and the hype bird at once. [url=http://imYVr]My fiance Tristen and I[/u] are gonna be serving whatever was in the market that morning and the menu will change at least weekly, but more likely some items will appear daily and others may have a few days on the board.  We're doing a soft open from March 1st through May 1st, we'll be open 6 days a week (Tues - Sun) from noon-8 and every day there will be new things to try. There will always be a lumpia or siopao, there will always be a stew-type dish (ilaga) that can be had over rice or in a roti, there will always be bbq skewers and there will always be a dessert, but the flavors and types within these categories will change fairly constantly. [url=http://ns]We are and always have been a fusion food company, and that won't change.[/l] But our dedication has always been toward furthering the exposure of Filipino techniques and flavor profiles; we introduce Caribbean flavors into everything we make, but we're not sloppy or hamfisted, our combinations serve to highlight the tastes and textures that are already integral to Filipino cuisine, not to 'w'dumb it down' for people. You won't find sisig poutines or longanisa burgers here, but watch out for jerk sisig rotis or longanisa & roasted pineapple skewers. We're aiming to have prices land between 4 and 7 dollars for lunch combos (ilaga rotis are the top end, siopao or lumpia on their own are the low) For those of you who have had some of our food before, all your favorites will be back from time to time, along with a slew of new and exciting recipes that we can now explore with a permanent place. Our campaign video was done by a small goon-run company that offered their services to us named Ponderdog Productions. They did a great job for us and handled a stressful and short timeline. Anyone looking for video work in Toronto would do well to consider them. Whether of not you can afford to support us financially, a share on social media with the hashtag #RollwithTitoRons can mean just as much as a dollar, and we have rewards starting that low. On Wednesday we'll be responding to requests to have a reward that can be shipped to backers who won't be able to come in and enjoy our treats, so if you're not near Toronto but Filipino food is near your heart, we'll have something for you in the coming days! One more shameless and naked link: Can't wait to see a bunch of you downtown this spring and answer embarassing questions about stairs and robots and bearded necks and fingats. Love you all ya buncha degenerates, Yours truly, Dr. Thomas Johnson [MOD NOTE: links removed] (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 18, 2016 16:47
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Spanish Manlove posted:I gave you ten american dollars. Enjoy the freedom bucks. With the way the exchange is headed this would probably fully fund us next year. Thank you, all jokes aside it means a lot 
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Jan 18, 2016 16:54
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Whorelord posted:Before I give anything... How do you feel about the blacks and or the gays? Man I almost forgot this was GBS and answered.
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Jan 18, 2016 17:03
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Gone Baptizin posted:Ill donate if we get some serious mascot discussions/promises The real Tito Ron is the chillest mascot possible. He's byob embodied as a man
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Jan 18, 2016 17:04
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Okay, we are twenty something liberals living in a metropolitan city center in canada. We are sensitive to and aware of systemic oppression and do our darnedest to limit the effects of my unfair privilege. We regularly get heated about #alllivesmatter
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Jan 18, 2016 17:08
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Mr. Pumroy posted:how piled high would you say your fries are Were much more prone to stuffing and rolling than piling, but we can build a fine and proper pile of rice and ilaga if you're demanding to be served in pile or mound form.
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Jan 18, 2016 17:24
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Noyemi K posted:loving millennials, don't you know the true way to prosperity is to bootstrap yourselves with a socially acceptable business, not artisanal froo froo crap but old fashioned american fast food like M.C. Doogans or Hamburger Knave I live in the Portland of nations hth
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Jan 18, 2016 17:25
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dipple posted:I was skeptical until I scrolled down and saw a Vienna sausage on a stick with a cube of cheese. That's called longanisa and your life just became richer at breakfast time. Also that's pineapple iirc
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Jan 18, 2016 17:34
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Gone Baptizin posted:So is this location you're opening in a place where wealthy urbanites just spend money or do you think changing your menu every week at the start is going to get you the consistent casual customer base you need with a niche business? Kensington as a neighborhood is very much our bohemian hippy area, lots of little vintage stores and places to grab ethnic street food and walk around shopping. The personality of Toronto in general gets more yuppies visiting this area than you might see in other metros, so our target mix lands somewhere in the middle. Filipino food is the up and coming trend here right now, and lots of people are looking to see what makes it unique. We think offering a changing selection will get people realizing they already like this cuisine instead of encouraging the uninitiated to latch onto whatever becomes the Filipino pho or pad Thai.
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Jan 18, 2016 17:37
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Saalkin posted:If you fund this poo poo, maybe next time I'm in Toronto I'll eat your food, but I'm not loving funding you on kickstarter. Honestly this is a totally fair sentiment, crowd funding is not an appealing concept for everyone or for every project. We feel strongly that the support is there in our fan base and thus far our response has reflected that, but I certainly can't hold anyone at fault for wanting to see whether we deserve your money.
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Jan 18, 2016 17:42
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how me a frog posted:But you're not sure? Some chef you are... I'm the business manager, my fiancé is the chef. It was pineapple; says a text I sent to make sure.
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Jan 18, 2016 17:43
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Noyemi K posted:Relevant financial questions You are correct, no one is starting even a simple takeout counter like this with $5k, not even in American dollars. We have received funding from traditional sources and savings, and also have used a subsidized grant program to help get things to the point where the internet stranger money can even help us. A lot more than the Kickstarter goal has been required to get this march 1st thing on track. The true issue that we hadn't foreseen is the CAD dollar-related rise of our startup expenses every day. We've already paid for a large portion of the necessary expenses, but the equipment is getting more expensive daily and the gap between reality and comfort is widening. Hopefully this isn't more than i should be saying! 
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Jan 18, 2016 17:56
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FrankieGoes posted:No slaw dogs, nothing piled high, and no racism = no money from me, sorry. We can't please everybody thankfully
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Jan 18, 2016 18:05
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Noyemi K posted:Sounds to me like you deliberately shot low on the KS to get SOME funding even though it may not be enough to cover the rest of your startup costs. Have you consulted BFC or A/T at all about running a ristorante Actually it's a bit of the opposite. We shot a little higher than our estimated gap since we weren't sure on how wide it would become. We are of the opinion that you can cut expenses in a lot of ways, but when you're crowd funding that becomes incredibly dishonest to bank on. I actually haven't got advice through here on operations, but we have a mentor and a number of very helpful restauranteur friends that have helped us nail down the details. We've also been running a food stand for a year with very similar roadblocks to success.
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Jan 18, 2016 18:18
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Noyemi K posted:What will you do in the fairly likely event the KS fails Cut some of our potential menu items until profit pays for equipment upgrades over the modest pieces we own from the last year. Rely entirely on word of mouth marketing and stow away extra capital to survive the not-projected-for fallow period. Brand less aggressively to start. We've put enough into this to open the doors in March and sell the things we sold all summer, but the full concept will have to be implemented gradually.
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Jan 18, 2016 18:31
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I'm a white straight male so no, I'm not looking to refute the fact that my life is really easy and that crowd funding is a concept that is incongruous with bootstrap conservatism. But we live in an age where you can reach out to those who support your vision and get to take advantage of an opportunity that previous generations would have had to let slip by until they did more work. All you have to do to chase that opportunity is be willing to ask. You're stuck on the idea that were ignoring other options and not trying to use everything we can to address some unexpected problems in a much larger plan that was quite literally bootstrap conservatism over a period of a year of hard work.
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Jan 18, 2016 18:41
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Molothecat posted:others have a vision of you owning a restaurant? Filipino street food and specifically a wider variety of Filipino food available in the city. And also yes, our supporters actually like the idea of us being in the same place for extended periods of time.
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Jan 18, 2016 18:45
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We earned the money to open this location by selling my Filipino fiance's Filipino food. We were more successful than we anticipated thanks to a lot of hard work, and we found ourselves with an offer that was too good to let pass. It meant we'd have to swallow our pride and ask for help to make it happen the way we envisioned, but it also meant that we'd be a year ahead of our projected timeline if we could somehow find that funding. I cannot in good conscience argue that we deserve your support, but the hot takes here centering around my entitlement are a little strong. If this kickstarter fails we will still be doing this, largely thanks to the hard work you all keep suggesting we do and to the fact that we did actually save the money from our regular jobs to make this happen, but is it really so dishonest to try to use a platform that exists for ostensibly this purpose? Our entire campaign is essentially a stretch goal, but what exactly is evil about that? and quite honestly, the timing of Filipino food as a trend is tough to pinpoint. A big community came up in SF, a few hot places opened in NYC and Toronto got an incredible fine dining spot downtown. I'm not sure burrito places will start adding adobo and menudo to their menus, but I doubt we'll be the only Filipino food in Kensington for very long.
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Jan 18, 2016 19:03
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Tristen is my fiancé, she is Filipino and I am white as the driven snowden. Her uncle is Trinidadian. Who got banned for account sharing? Honest question; what should crowd funding be used for?
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Jan 18, 2016 19:15
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Killed a Girl in 96 posted:it should be used for paying someone to break your kneecaps Lol the licensing and legal fees for your proposed venture will hobble you if you aren't outright crippled.
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Jan 18, 2016 19:19
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Eh, you guys are bums but your feedback is useful and more coherent than you try and make it look
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Jan 18, 2016 19:33
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I had no illusions about posting in GBS. If I can't answer your criticisms, then we should probably all agree I shouldn't be
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Jan 18, 2016 19:40
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somuch_gravy posted:can you post the indiegogo you have set up to pay ur rent and the gofundme you have going to pay for your wedding? just wanna do a little more research about you b4 I donate thx Indiegogo we didn't use because we didn't like the idea of keeping people's money if we didn't meet our goal. We didn't like how much more beggarly "as much as we can get" felt. We've mostly paid for the wedding already and this kickstarter is our first foray into the world of not just running our business off personal savings and profit from sales.
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Jan 18, 2016 19:42
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somuch_gravy posted:does/did kensington have a heroin problem at one point? Only half wrong. Heroins just not quite as big here. Were hoping the new weed dispensary next door funnels stoners in who are craving deep fried fun.
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Jan 18, 2016 19:45
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social media guru posted:I hope you get #AIDS from sharing a #heroine needles @Doctor Tommty John I enjoy GBS for being GBS and have for years but I can't say I'm too plussed by whatever this thing you're doing is
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Jan 18, 2016 19:47
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social media guru posted:youare "#wife is not too #plussed either because she is trans and doesnt bhave a #plussy HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I get it. Sorry that one kinda went over my head what with all the idiocy and all
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Jan 18, 2016 19:51
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Mange Mite posted:Lol you didnt anticipate and have an answer for the criticism "why should strangers give you money" Strangers can give us money if they read our story and our mission and want to support it, and a solid number from both these forums and outside them have done just that. No one should feel guilted into giving us money because our lot in life is bad or not, that's really not how kickstarter is meant to work.
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Jan 18, 2016 20:19
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satanic splash-back posted:Go gently caress yourself, even beggars on the streets will give you a reason they need money. You are a spoiled brat asking for free money so you can realize your dream without the downsides like actual commitment. We need money to purchase cooking equipment like a griddle and new fryers, we need to do a small renovation to fix up the counter. We also need operational expenses like a proper POS system, signs, marketing, storage and a refrigerator. Some of these things can wait, and some can have their price tag cut down. We successfully applied for a loan to cover the expenses of a large festival that was cancelled at the last minute. When we went looking for replacement opportunities and added our profits and savings, we saw we were only a short stretch away from opening a full time spot. As it stood, we had enough to get the doors open and sell a limited menu, but if we could secure a little extra we could open with the capability to make more of what people want without any compromises.
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Jan 18, 2016 20:33
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Blazing Zero posted:the man is on gbs, i dont know if dignity is in the equation
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Jan 18, 2016 20:40
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I meant the bums comment to be appropriately tongue in cheek Yknow cuz GBS
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Jan 18, 2016 20:50
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I didn't want images out there of what appears to be an employed twelve year old proposing marriage in his workplace.
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Jan 18, 2016 21:03
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We've had a fair bit of experience getting the uninitiated to realize that Filipino food isn't all that weird. I'm not standing in a tent screaming at hipsters in Tagalog; people are generally open minded enough to try "a spicy stew with pork and tomato" or "it's like a spring roll. Then we fill it with jerk chicken"
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Jan 18, 2016 21:36
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That was a really good post thank you. I am the first person that's going to say that if you are choosing between donating to a worthwhile charity or backing my admittedly self-serving private business that I would rather that money went to the charity. That said, if I'm not mistaken, it sounds like your point of contention is with crowd funding being an option for a private business as opposed to our attempt to use it. I'm not here to debate the merits of crowd funding or the motivations of those who support projects through it. Personally I have backed projects that could have reasonably been funded traditionally by the creators, and that didn't affect my decision nor would I contest anyones right for it to affect theirs. I'm happy to answer questions about our business and our decision to go with crowd funding, though. Kensington is rather saturated, but we are decidedly street food. Our food is meant to be eaten with one hand while the customer wanders around, our food is in spring rolls or rotis or siopaos that can be eaten while you shop. It's true, there is stiff competition throughout the market, but people do at least come there with the idea that they'll grab some interesting street food instead of sitting down. We could have chosen an area with less competition, but it would have less traffic that was shopping on foot, and if it didn't suffer from that problem we'd have to also fight against the fine dining/new American spots that are in every other hip neighborhood. As for the continual inference that we were denied by the bank for traditional funding, it's slightly more complicated than that, but I completely understand that running any kind of fundraising is a market indicator and i can't stop anyone from drawing their own conclusions from that.
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Jan 18, 2016 21:57
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Thankfully we are renting a location with installed hoods.
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Jan 18, 2016 22:03
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Noblesse Obliged posted:whats your opinion on little bitch "graphiti" artists? That thankfully that dude got his own place up the street and is gone forever. I hate yankees posted:Do you have any relevant business experience for a venture like this? I'm talking about department head or MBA experience, not some cubicle warrior. No, but we've been lucky to have access to a pretty amazing mentor.
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Jan 18, 2016 22:13
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Thanks for some reasonable feedback that relates to our campaign and not just the evils of crowd funding. We are targeting a niche, absolutely, but yes we are prepared to weather a storm when the trend shifts. The fact is, we love Filipino food and make a pretty interesting take on it; it's popular right now and we've been successful capitalizing on that interest. If we can't market to the appeal of an exciting trend, our popular dishes still stand alone, but the emphasis on sampling a wide variety of Filipino style dishes would lessen, with an increased focus on establishing our signature items. Interesting fillings for spring rolls are not what I'd call niche; it's deep fried food for cryin out loud. It would be pretty monumentally ignorant for me to tell you all you're wrong and were assured success once we get the door open; I couldn't actually think that less. 80% of restaurants fail in their first two years. We don't think we have an automatic million dollar idea, we think were two people with some cool recipes who make good food and offer good service. I'm willing to bet on that, you don't have to be but I'm not sorry for trying. I don't play the lottery or gamble or speed, time to take a loving risk.
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Jan 18, 2016 22:27
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Our mentor is from a consulting firm that assists companies in expanding their operations, largely from online to actual. I'm no longer completely ignorant of business administration. We were only doing festivals and stuff for the past year and not running a full location, but a lot of the regulatory challenges are the same. I know enough that I'll pay people to do what I can't, and hopefully I know enough to know what those things are.
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Jan 18, 2016 22:32
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Projected sales were about 30k with the big festivals model, but counter+small festivals can reach up as high as a hundred just by virtue of continuous exposure. projected profit also doubles because the festival model involves renting commercial kitchen space as well as booth space whereas the counter can produce food where it's sold. And, obviously as a restaurant, if were not popular we'll fail. Is that something I need to make sure I say? And one more time, we've put our savings along with borrowed money into this already. We've got about 15 in so far and another 3 or so to spend outside the kickstarter stuff. It is not cheap to start a foodservice business of any kind.
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Jan 18, 2016 22:55
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Drunk Canuck posted:Will you promise not to cum on the spring rolls? You have my most solemn vow. And yes, if we don't turn a profit over the summer then that would get dire, but taking all your income and paying down your bills into the future for 6 months before you quit can mitigate that a fair bit.
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Jan 18, 2016 23:02
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I.C. posted:Fiancée is what you call a lady who is going to be married. Jesus this was enlightening I had no idea that was gender specific. Thank you.
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Jan 18, 2016 23:26
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